The Temple Studies Bibliography has been updated again, with inclusions of 900 more titles since its launch in the Fall of 2012, including a number of dissertations on temple themes. The bibliography is over 700 typed pages long!

Today we are fortunate to be participating in “The Temple on Mount Zion” Conference in Provo, Utah, in memory of Matthew B. Brown, and sponsored by Interpreter Foundation. Of course, the theme of the entire conference is the temple. There have been some excellent presentations on numerous topics including noah, the ark, divine handclasps, egyptology, creation, Job, the Psalms, Dead Sea Scrolls, the “terrible questions,” Jacob’s sermon, axes mundi, Nephites and Mesoamerica, the Torah, the design of temples, and others.

We are planning our third fireside discussion at TempleStudy.com using Google Hangouts on Air, live online, for tomorrow night, Wednesday, August 22nd, at 7:30pm (get reminded by Google+ here). Our discussion last week was great; we discussed the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Essenes, Qumran, the Temple Scroll, Jacob at Bethel and the symbolism of Jacob’s Ladder, and some thoughts from Elder Carlos E. Asay. We should have a great chat this week too, with Professor William J. Hamblin leading the discussion.

In these discussions we talk about the history, principles, and reasons for the LDS temple, and temple worship antecedents in antiquity. Springboarding the discussion will be Andrew Skinner’s book, Temple Worship (chapter 1), which is also available as an ebook for Kindle. If you would like to be a contributor, or “panelist,” in our discussion, and you have a webcam (or have an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Android), please let me know. Otherwise you can simply watch the discussion as it takes place here at TempleStudy.com, on the Google+ event page, or the recording later which will be here at TempleStudy.com or on YouTube.

For those interested in the temple, topics will include “Book of Abraham, I Presume” by John Gee, and “Piercing the Veil: Temple Worship in the Lost 116 Pages” by Don Bradley, as well as many other very interesting subjects. Those that are interested in the ongoing FARMS/Maxwell Institute situation, the original founder of FARMS, John W. Welch, will be speaking about his further research on chiasmus, as will former Mormon Studies Review/FARMS Review editor Daniel C. Peterson, on the topic “Of ‘Mormon Studies’ and Apologetics,” which should be interesting given recent events.

It is significant to note that this year that you don’t have to travel to Sandy, Utah, to take part. The conference will also be available online via live video/audio streaming! You can sit in the comfort of your living room, or even on-the-go via your mobile smartphone or tablet, from anywhere in the world, and take part in this excellent conference. This news comes direct from FAIR:

This year we are providing Conference streaming for your Windows, Android, Apple, and even Roku devices. Here is a way for you to have your own FAIR Conference in your home. Hook it up to your big-screen TV and invite over your friends for a FAIR Conference event. We have updated our technology on this, so the price for streaming the conference into your home, or two your phones, computers or tablets is $15 for each day or $25 for both days. When you sign up, in the comments section please mention which device or devices you are planning on using (Roku, iphone, ipad, Android tablet, etc.)

I understand David Bohn. Scholarship in general does not represent an unassailable uncontested platonic absolute truth, no matter the source from whence it comes. It may be trying to get at the truth, from many different angles, but it can’t quite reach the destination, ever. How close it gets is entirely subjective in each person absorbing it, depending on their experience and resulting perspective.

Truth is like an opaque cloth bag with an object inside, but no opening. You can poke, prod, twist, squeeze, kick, hike, spin, sit on, stretch, slam, or feel it through the bag for eternity, but you won’t know for certain what is inside that bag until you take it out, or ask who put it in there (which still involves some doubt, because now you must judge that individual). You may have an excellent idea, but no certainty. What is its color, for example? No one will ever know, while its still inside the bag.

In terms of religion, I would argue that God is inside the bag, and in Mormon-speak that bag’s the veil. He may also have been the one that put Himself there, or know who did. And this for a reason, perhaps only He knows (another bag). Some day the veil will drop, and we will Know Him.

Alethiology, or the study of the nature of truth (related to epistemology, the study of knowledge its acquisition), would be a good topic to bring up in these discussions. How do we come to a knowledge of truth, in whatever degree? Scholarship certainly helps, but is not an end all. It provides evidence, up for the taking in a never-ending discussion and debate to determine its truthfulness.

Of course, some “truth” is more “simple” than other truth. The fact that I drove a car to work today is pretty incontestable, you’d think. But was it really a “car”? Did I really “drive” it, or can my Utah driving even be considered by that term? Was it even in the past tense, “drove” (to God it was likely the present)? Can a rusted out 1993 Honda Civic with malfunctioning speedometer, odometer, A/C, radio, steering fuel leak, and tail lights still be considered an automobile? Is what I do at “work” really work, or is it unrelated blogging on an online Mormon forum?

This is part of the reason I’ve stopped blogging, as of recent. Too distracting from the truth in my work, but often worth it for the truth in the subject matter. Which is more true? Which should be true? Which would I like to be true?

Back to work…

I need a sabbatical all of the sudden. I feel completely overcome (literally trembling right now) by the creative muse which seems to have engulfed me. I don’t know where it is coming from, but this isn’t standard Bryce. And I’m not talking only about what’s been happening in this Maxwell Institute debate. It’s flowing like a fire hose into all areas of my every day life, from my work, to my home life, my children, my hobbies, my calling, my wife, my language. Where is it coming from? I feel incredibly sharp, and quick. Words are coming to me that I haven’t ever before envisioned or had slip from my tongue. It’s an amazingly transcendent feeling, which I can’t fully explain. Maybe I can, but maybe not right now.

The Creative gift, where does it go?
From the mountains on down, through the rivers flow
Flow through my head, without end
Out of my fingers, without pen
I don’t know, and can’t explain
That which so engulfs me again
The Spirit bloweth where it listeth
To and fro, it won’t ceaseth
Overcome with thought, I imagine
I’ve been here before, my King!

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This blog is dedicated to the exemplary LDS (Mormon) scholar Dr. Hugh Nibley, whose landmark temple studies have strengthened the faith of many. Read more on About page. Email me. Click on the widget in the lower-right corner of the window to chat with me.